Charm Bracelet and Necklace

Check out these charms that I made using family photo's! I saw the idea from Stories by Me blog. She has a real cute tutorial on how to make these charms (If you have not been to her blog you should go spend some time over there checking out all her cute crafts how-to's) Let me go over how I made these charms and what I learned while making them.

1. You will need to purchase Shrinky Dink paper for the Ink Jet Printer
notice I "highlighted" the word Ink Jet printer. They make two types of Shrinky Dink paper, and you bet ya! The first trip to the store I came home with the wrong type of Shrinky Dink paper (Just FYI Michael's does not carry Shrink Dink for the Ink Jet Printer -at least mine does not. I found the correct type of paper at Hobby Lobby) and yes there really is a difference in the paper (on the wrong paper the ink beads up like water on fabric that has been scotch guarded - urrr!)

2. You will need to print your pictures out on the Shrinky Dink paper for the Ink Jet Printer approx. the size of a school picture your kids get every year. (I believe Stories by Me blog does list measurements)
**note: learn from my mistake do not get so carried away making the perfect grid to print out -that your forget that you will be cutting those suckers out and nobody, and I mean nobody will know how they looked when you printed them out. Also you will need to lighten your pics. to about 50% for printing or choose transparancy for print option.

3. You will need to cut them out individually, use a corner rounder (if you want to) and use the Hole punch to make a hole before baking them!!!

note: I did not use a small hole punch -the holes shrink to, I used just my standard size.

4. Trust me, only cook or "bake" around 3 at a time. Be Prepared to smoosh them flat as soon as those puppies come out of the oven while they are warm - if you wait they will crack!!!! I used a Metal tub that was flat on the bottom to smoosh mine done flat. (also use a brown paper bag to line your baking sheet when baking the shrinky dinks)

5. last but not least once dry spray with a sealer. I used a Matte sealer.

(also the other blog mentioned that you could modge podge paper to the back of the charms!! I did not want to "commit' the charms on the bracelet to paper coloring and design that I was unsure that my mom would like, but I am so modge podging mine!)

Hope everyone has a good week!

New Zebra print dry erase board

Above is the new Zebra Print dry erase board that I made my daughter. (Sorry I took pictures before I hung it on the wall)

The above picture shows how this project all started: with a framed picture that I had grown tired of. So I took the picture out of the frame, cut the picture out leaving the border (My picture and border was one piece)

Once the picture was out of the way, I got busy modge podging my Zebra print to the border, or mat. Once this was done, where the picture was I laid a piece of solid purple fabric behind the mat, and returned the whole thing to the frame. I decided that if my daughter was to use this as a dry erase board - it would need to be solid fabric so that her writing would show up on the board. However plain is so "boring" for a tween so the zebra printed mat would make it fun! I hot glued a zebra ribbon on the top edge of the Zebra Dry erase board and hot glued a dry erase marker to the other end of the ribbon - once it was hung on the wall.

**I did get this cute idea from another blog but for the life of me I can not seem to find which one, the zebra print, and color was my own. I apologize that I have not given someone due credit!!! Leave me a message and I will update my post.

Random Projects-modge podged coasters, and canister make over

Well "project Amy" is back! At least that is what my hubby has proclaimed, and since everybody is scared I might start painting them, maybe it is true. Well here are some pictures of some random small projects that I have done the last few days. Some are better than others, but all were fun to work on!

Well the first project I thought I would work on was creating some Zebra printed coaster to match my daughters new room. I can not remember if it was Lowe's or Home depot who advertise buying cork board coasters and modge podging fabric onto the coasters. Well when I was at Michael's the other day I asked if they had cork board coaster and was told "no" but I could buy a roll of thin cork board and cut it into circles. I thought that was a pretty good idea - that is until the tight wad in me saw that it was approx $9.00 for a roll of cork board. However on my way out of Michael's I passed their cute little (addictive) $ section and I spotted the above Rooster coasters. Cute, but not quite the look I needed, but I thought I bet I can modge podge on that! So you guess it, I bought a package and home I went to modge podge Zebra print scrapbook paper onto the coasters. One coat on the coaster, then apply paper directly onto coaster, then seal coaster with another coat of modge podge. Then for good measure I sprayed with a coat of varnish. Here is how they turned out:

Well that is all the Zebra crafts I have for now. My second project I decided to do, was when I was at Walmart in their craft section their rub on decals caught my eye. I simply love Fleur De Li's! What do you know they had some! So I grabbed them up not knowing for sure what I was going to do with them. I came home and was putting my groceries up and my eyes spied my boring, plain canisters. Yeah~ I felt like Fancy Nancy (Fancy Nancy is a character from a children's book series, who fancies everything up, she does not like plain!) So I came home, and spray painted the silver lids black. Then went to town rubbing on those decals.
Here is a picture of my finished canister set on my kitchen counters:

I love working on small projects around a house that personalizes the space to where it reflects the occupants personality!!! Thanks for letting me share my projects!